Rants and Raves on Espresso

This dive with barely a service opening sits at the end of an old brick building — still labelled as “Uncle Vito’s Pizzeria” in signage and its black awning. Opening just last month, “Cento” stands for “100” in Italian — which looks like about the monthly rent that owner John Quintos must be paying for this location.

Cento unfortunately perpetuates the annoying trend requiring espresso lovers to participate in mock heroin deals — i.e., sipping espresso from classic brown Nuova Point cups passed out a back door, standing in an alley of some noxious armpit of town where a body was found the night before. (A.k.a., those conceptual-art-wannabe cafés that keep cropping up.) It may save money and attract the prerequisite hipsters, but it also shows little respect for themselves and their customers.

So yes, it’s the stereotype alleyway — with music playing out into the street and no seating save for a single outdoor bench that straddles a towaway parking zone. However, there is “seating” on a loading dock platform across the street.

The folks here club you over the head with the Blue Bottle Coffee branding — so much so, Cento’s branding takes a back seat to it. It’s also staffed by the prerequisite failed art student doppelgängers (ok, yes, so that one was below the belt), but you can’t knock their good barista skills — and here they have them. While they have paper cups for the odd drink like the New Orleans iced tea, the staff claim they serve “for here”-only espresso (they get it).

Using a three-group La Marzocco Linea, they pull shots with a darker brown crema that is rather thick and rich in consistency — it’s one of the finer examples in the city in this regard. The cup is smooth and has a complex flavor of herbal notes and pungent spices. It has a bit of an odd flavor edge/aftertaste in the middle of the cup, but it runs sweet at the bottom.

So despite our gripes about cookie-cutter squatter camps masquerading as “third wave” hipster coffeehouses, here they make some of the finest espresso in the city. And unlike other recent examples of James Freeman’s expansionist plans, such as the recently reviewed Jackson Place Cafe, they do the Blue Bottle beans justice here: the coffee tastes fresh and the baristas approach their drinks skillfully.

9 Responses to “Trip Report: Cento”

Though your coffee insight is appreciated, your social commentary about the city’s subcultures just make you sound increasingly bitter and detract from the review of what is ultimately the bottom line and reason I ever read this – the coffee. For all the obvious effort put in this website, I cringe to read stuff like “failed art student” which is far more a reflection of you personally than anything else, which is certainly of no interest to me the reader and coffee drinker.
Thanks.

You raise a fair criticism. While the ratings do stand by themselves and reflect no measures of social commentary, we are guilty as charged of offering some occasionally bitter social commentary. But what’s a blog without social commentary?

But there is a big social story going on right now in the SF coffee scene today. To not discuss it would be to deny it exists. People are opening coffeeshops with a clear demographic marketing strategy in mind — one that is very much in vogue right now. And while it’s good for any business person to at least have a strategy, the one being chosen more often is – well – regressive at best.

There are clear intentions of approach and style with many of these new openings. While there are improving coffee standards to be had today, the standards for where the coffee is being served – and how coffee consumers are being treated – is regressing faster here than consumer standards for air travel have been regressing nationally.

What we sense – and this is a real trend that is news in the Bay Area that no one else is covering – is that new indie cafés are getting so caught up in being the anti-Starbucks that they’re cutting off the nose to spite the face. No one would accuse us of being supporters of Starbucks, but there’s such a reactionary response to them that all of the good things Starbucks has brought to bear are being rejected along with the bad.

Like a place to sit. Like shelter from the elements. Like clean bathrooms. Like predictable hours so customers don’t make the trek needlessly. Like baristas who offer either you and/or themselves the respect of coming to work looking like they didn’t sleep the night in their own vomit before serving you – and acting with pride in their work and not as if they’re doing you a favor by serving you.

There’s probably a bit of Ritual‘s hard lessons in there as well – such as don’t also put out outlets and WiFi if you don’t want overnight campers. But stripping your café of every possible amenity as an solution is applying a scorched earth policy to anti-customer warfare.

So point taken on the social commentary, but we’ve seen nobody else really writing about this regressive trend. And it’s a real pain to see standards being rolled back like this for area coffee lovers. It’s a subject that needs discussion.

To some degree, Billy Bob, I agree. We try to keep the coffee ratings separate from any ratings about the ambience per se. But as research has shown, the cup you use directly influences the perception of quality in the shot.

The place it is served at is certainly a major step once removed from the cup’s influence, but I’m sure there are at least some parallels.

I appreciate what you mean about throwing the baby out with the bathwater in regards to ditching the few good things about Starbucks, but in fairness 4-Barrel’s back-alley coffee has only been in effect while they are preparing their actual storefront and cafe, so there’s a good chance that they will have nice bathrooms and the other amenities you mention. It’s certainly a marketing move targeted at a specific demographic, but that just seems like smart business, especially when their location is somewhere off the beaten path. People will come in the early days for the novelty / trendiness, but when the cafe opens they will already know exactly where it is.